A Big Weekend in Mallacoota

 As is traditional with Big Weekends, this one starts on Thursday.  That is mainly because it was ANZAC Day: given the Victorian Governments love of adding Public Holidays at the drop of a Union endorsement, I am surprised that 26 April wasn't so declared.  Surely Flathead Capture Day would be worth celebrating?  At least as good as Melbourne Cup Day or -for 💩's sake - Grand Final Eve!

The Mallacoota Pony Club is filling the void left by the RSL running out of members by arranging a ride to the Bunker Museum.  I think they had 22 riders of various ages and sexes on equines of various sizes.  Very well done that Pony Club!

Thelwell eat your heart out!

A fair squad of folks (and dogs) walked behind the hosses from Betka.

While a bunch of others had driven to the Bunker.

The next day I was returning from Bastion Point and had to swerve on Betka Rd to avoid an unruly, and somewhat portly, pedestrian.  She - I think - was very obliging in posing.

Eventually she declared that tree inadequate, and headed off across Bastion Point Rd showing a fair turn of speed ....

... and then headed for the hills.

The sea harvest event is on this weekend so lanterns have been positioned in Coulls Inlet.  They will be illuminated for the next few nights.

Here are the lanterns by night!

Birds of the Airport and nearby

 On a Sunday morning I often go for a drive around most of the way around the airport.  Sometimes this can be brilliant, at others hopeless - I have spent 40 minutes there, with another birder, and not seen a single winged thing!

Today was about average.  The route is illustrated here.

At point 1 life got a little interesting with a flock of Little Ravens.  I got the count up to 38 birds (a tad difficult to be precise as they were quite active, but there were at least that many).  As well as the large flock size the "cut-off" call was very evident.

An immature Spotted Harrier (thanks to 2 Facebook followers for that ID from following photographs) took off from the heathy area.

It then perched on a fence post at site 2 with 2 Ravens for size comparison.

A portrait.

A short flight, quartering the ground (Harrier Pottering is the official joke)  and it perched obligingly at point 3.  This gives a reasonable impression of the owlish facial appearance.

After a brief prowl in the grounds of the Bunker (4 Gang-gangs, yay) I called in at Betka Beach to check on the Hoodies.  The water is still rising but it looks as though they are still incubating.  (The sitting bird is in front of the mounds of vegetation.)

Birds, Bunker and BBQ

 As a contribution to the Victorian Seniors Festival U3A Mallacoota organised a visit to the Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) followed by lunch at the WW2 Bunker Museum site, an inspection of the Bunker and a natural history exploration of part of the Bunker site.  Thank you to East Gippsland Water for permission to visit the WWTP and to the Mallacoota and District Historical Society (MDHS) for opening the Bunker Museum site.

I had had some concerns about the weather we might experience with rain forecast at some stage.  As we started the sky was clear although the wind was a little brisk when out of the shelter of the trees.

We gathered on Betka Rd beside the entrance to the tip and followed tracks through the bush checking out the birds as we went.  Most observations were by ear, with quite of lot of calls being evident.  The most frequent calls were of Yellow-faced Honeyeaters  earning their historic vernacular name of Bush Canary.  Of course Grey Fantails came to inspect us.  As we approached the entrance to the WWTP a Leaden Flycatcher was heard - my first record for the season - but remained hidden somewhere in the dense foliage above us.

On entering the WWTP an unusual site for the area was an Australian Pelican soaring over the ponds.  This appeared to disturb the waterfowl a little, possibly they mistook it for a large raptor, but they settled down again.  

As we headed towards the ponds with more fowl a moderate sized (a little over 1m in length) Red-bellied Black Snake was seen absorbing a few sun rays: after a period of mutual observation it headed back down its burrow.

The waterbirds on the ponds have been in reduced numbers for a few months as several species have headed off to the floodwaters of the Western inland.  This meant we didn't see any Pink-eared Ducks or Hardhead nor surprisingly any Eurasian Coots (which have been in remarkably reduced numbers this year across East Gippsland).  A few Australasian Shovelers were the least common Ducks seen.   As usual several Australian Shelduck were present and several ducklings of that species were evident (in reduced numbers compared to recent visits presumably due to predation by birds of prey).  The Black Swans were accompanied by a flotilla of cygnets. 

As the site contains extensive timbered country with much regrowth after the 2019-20 fire  a good range of bush birds were seen and (notably) heard.  As we were close to leaving a Restless Flycatcher posed nicely for a photo.

Within the WWTP we recorded 30 species which I regard as a pretty good outcome for a rather windy day with quite a few of the on-water species missing in action.

On the way back to the cars it was surprising to note a number of specimens of Glossodia major (Large Waxlip Orchid).  Most of these were the 'normal' blue/mauve flowers

.. but we did notice one white form flower.

On our way to the Bunker we swung into Betka Beach to look for the Hooded Plovers.  However as the mouth of the Betka River was closed again the water was covering most of the area where the Hoodies roost and nest so they were not available for viewing.

After a very enjoyable BBQ cooked by members of U3A and MDHS (who hadn't come to the WWTP) we checked out the display in the Bunker Museum itself and then went to explore 

• some of the nest boxes erected by Birdlife Australia; and 
• the Nature Trail being developed by MDHS in the vicinity of the Bunker.

Previous checks of the nest boxes had found no clear evidence of occupancy but on this occasion inserting aprobe camera (thank you, Caroline) into 2 boxes found they were occupied (o the camera was rapidly withdrawn to avoid stressing the Ring-tailed possums.

On the way to look at other parts of the Nature Trail we came across a nice specimen of a sun orchid: I think Thelymitra arenaria.  In the first image the orchid is just visible above the pamphlet.

We then went to explore the signage and tree-fern plantings.

All in all I found it a very pleasant outing covering a few of the many enjoyable aspects of Mallacoota.

To do with birds

 I'm putting this image first to get it on Facebook.  It was get explained a bit further down.

My first effort today was a bike ride to Bucklands to see if the Nankeen Night-Herons were around.  They weren't, as far as I could tell.  En route I checked the huge fig tree opposite the school bus stop for fruit: very little that I could see,

Getting past Mullet Creek I looked back at the jetties and realised that I had 5 species of Cormorant and relatives in one image!

1 Little Pied Cormorant; 2 Little Black Cormorant; 3 Great Cormorant;
4 Pied Cormorant, 5 Australasian Darter

I have previously managed to get these 4 Cormorant species + Black-face Cormorant in one shot (on the Breakwater at Glenelg SA) but never before 4 Cormorants and a Darter.

Here is a closer shot of the Great Cormorant and the Pied Cormorant.

A little further along Lakeside Drive (the jetty near Schnapper Point Drive) I spotted a familiar shape on the jetty.

Yes!  A Squidgy Heron.

I came back over Stingray Point mainly to check the figs by the grassy area,  Both trees seemed covered with fruit so will I think be good for Figbirds, Topknot Pigeons and Channel-billed Cuckoos a little later in the season.  On the way down the hill I saw this person checking things out.  Laid back as usual and only about 1.8m off the ground.

We then went off to the Bunker Museum site to check out the BLA nest boxes to see if there was any activity.  The opening image is me preparing to insert Caroline's pole camera into one of the boxes.  (That was the second highest we found: I couldn't get the probe in the highest.)  Here is the route we followed: the pink ring is the site of the Bunker.

In total there are 33 boxes here: 20 put up by BLA and 13 by the Historical Society.  We found 26 of them, but none were currently occupied.  Here is a link to a summary.

Slightly Western Wildlife

On 29 December I, guided by our friend Gary, went exploring areas somewhat West of Mallacoota looking for an uncommon bird and an even less common orchid.  While I dipped on both (Gary saw the bird very briefly) there was a lot of other 'stuff' of interest and I was exposed to several very interesting areas I hadn't previously visited.

A first stop was at a patch of (mainly) unburnt Allocasuarinas where Gary has seem Glossy Black-Cockatoos in the past.   Sure enough soon after stopping we heard them chuntering away as they fed and after a small amount of flailing around in the bush found them right on the roadside!  (In case you think the following photo is sponsored by CrapBirdPhotography.com you should see the ones I deleted.)

After searching for the uncommon bird we headed back towards the highway, pausing briefly to allow a rather long (~1.8m) Eastern Brown Snake to get off the road.  Heading further West we then explored a few grasstree plains (also known as swamps).  They were mainly very damp - not surprising considering recent rain.  What I have realised was surprising was the absence of mosquitoes: perhaps the cool weather has restricted their breeding?

On the way in to the first area a Sacred Kingfisher attempted to hide from my camera. 

A rather lurid fungus was lurking in the lowest level of the 'vegetation'.

Several specimens of Hakea decurrens were evident.

Being a swamp lots of Fairie's Aprons (Urtricularia dichotoma) were evident.

Although the hoped for orchid was not found (possibly because the site was oozing water, rather than merely damp) we found a good-sized colony of Large Tongue Orchids (Cryptostylis subulata).

A common site in any swampy area has been a yellow pea flower growing on very thin stems.  This time I took photos, and looked it up on Flora of Victoria.  It turns out to be listed under "Golden Spray" Viminaria juncea.

As we got back to the car our attention was grabbed by a ruckus at the top of a dead tree.  This was a Pallid Cuckoo  ....

.. being mobbed by a pair of Jacky Winters.  I couldn't get an attack sequence!

A view over one of the grasstree plains.

A newly split-out species of Onion Orchid Microtis benthami.  

Most of the Callistemon citrinus were past their use-by date but some were still doing the lurid thing.  

We heard the distinctive weep, weep call of a Beautiful Firetail but couldn't get it to reveal itself.  The habitat was absolutely correct for the species.

On the way back in to Karbeethong we stopped to look for other orchids finding several Cryptostylis leptochila (Small Tongue Orchid)